1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for engaging in interactive entertainment or for accessing non-interactive entertainment using a networked game console connected to a content provider over a bi-directional network, and more specifically to maintenance and accessing of customer and content databases which support such systems, for enabling playback of both valuable primary content along with auxiliary content such as targeted advertisements.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, improvements in the ability for members of the public to access valuable media and entertainment content by connection to relatively low cost high speed bi-directional networks has raised interest in advertisers seeking to exploit such systems for promotion of goods and services.
One trend has been to offer certain services, such as network access, or access to specialized media content, e-mail accounts, e-fax accounts, and so forth, over a network connection, for free to customers who are willing to sign up and provide detailed personal identifying information to be maintained in a server database. In return for providing such customer information, the service provider provides desired access to services, for example an e-mail account, to the customer for free or at reduced cost, with the provision that the customer must then view attached advertisements, which may be targeted to the customer based on his or her identifying information, browsing activity, etc. Such advertisements can be attached to customer e-mail or appear in pop-up windows or frames which are generated upon accessing the server network. By such systems, the costs necessary for maintaining the network services or paying for network content can be paid for by advertising revenues, whereas the customer gains access to desired services by release of certain personal information and being forced to view targeted commercial advertisements.
However, despite their popularity as an advertising medium, such systems suffer from the drawback that customers, in general, do not like being forced to view commercials. In addition, many customers are reluctant to give up personal information, particularly to advertisers, in exchange for free network services or free access to content over a network. A need exists for customers to exercise choice in whether and when they wish to view auxiliary content. At the same time, flexibility needs to be provided to advertisers in terms of the manner in which such auxiliary content is delivered to customers, so that advertisements can be presented in a non-offending way more likely to appeal to customer interest. Therefore, more flexible systems have been sought in which advertisements can be provided to customers who retain the option of viewing such advertisements or not, with the access fees for network and content services being adjusted based on whether a customer chooses to view the commercials or not.
Interactive television or video systems offering pay-per-view or video-on-demand services, and in which in which valuable content, such as movies in digital MPEG format are downloadable for customer viewing, along with optional advertisements, are known from Blahut et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,735 and Neel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,314. According to these methods, separate databases are established on the server side, the first containing desired valuable media content such as movies, a second database made up of commercial content, and a third database made up of customer identifying information. Should the customer elect not to view the commercial content, a full fee is assessed, whereas if the customer accepts and views the auxiliary content, accessing of the valuable content at a reduced cost or for free is made possible, in which case the revenues for the valuable content are paid for by advertisers. Although these systems do offer the customer the option of disabling advertisements, with fees to the customer for viewing content being adjusted accordingly, nevertheless such systems require a high investment to advertisers since the advertisers must be responsible for set up and maintenance of the server side advertisement database, either by themselves or through detailed coordination with the main content provider. Clearly, a more flexible and lower cost alternative to advertisers therefore would be desirable.
Other methods by which advertisers are able to get their messages across to viewers have been disclosed by Jernigan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,423 and Rakavy et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,040.
According to Jernigan et al., embedded commercials may be provided in a memory device installed in a television receiver, the commercials being displayed on a portion of the screen through use of a graphics generator when a control function on the television receiver is activated. Although local storage of advertisements on a programmable read-only memory (PROM) is disclosed, this system places a heavy burden on advertisers who must establish access with the PROM device in some manner through a server network.
According to Rakavy et al., advertisements may be provided over a computer network or on a local storage device such as a CD-ROM and displayed on a local computer. The advertisements displayed on the local computer can be selected based on pre-configured user preference information, such as which types or categories of advertisements a given user may choose to view. According to this system, however, although statistics of which advertisements are viewed are recorded, uploaded to an advertising server and provided to advertisers, there is no fee adjustment based on whether the advertisements are viewed or not, so there is no inducement for customers to view such advertisements. Further, the main feature intended to be accessed by this system is simply the internet as a whole, so there is no linkage or association between predetermined primary content and auxiliary advertising content. There is no suggestion that advertisements are provided on a local detachable storage medium which acts as the means (or key) by which customers gain access to predetermined content servers providing valuable media content such as movies, interactive games, programs, and so forth.